Improv Complete

Finished!  Fully quilted and bound (although I confess, no actual label yet).

I'm pleased with how it's turned out.

The large scale blocks from the workshop (thank you again, Brenda Gael Smith!) I quilted with diagonal lines.  The jury is still out on whether I should halve the space between them to give a denser fill, but I like the handle of the quilt how it is, so I think that I will go with feel over the look of it....

You can just see at the edges here that the border blocks were quilted with a loose meander.

Floral backing from my stash.  Not perfect, but the right size (well, with a 10" blue insert strip that I forgot to take a photo of!) and at least the blues in it work from the front to the back.

The binding was the same printed fabric that I used for the insert strips on the front to make everything fit.

This is how it looks now that it's complete.  It was great for using my home cut 5" and 10" pieces from my scrap drawer!  I even managed to get enough contrast in most of the border blocks without cutting any extra or pushing the colour paletter from the centre blocks too far!

And what decided me on this block layout in the end?  

It was this coverlet!  Made by an unknown maker, but associated with the marriage of John and Elizabeth Chapman.  This part of it was made in England in about 1829 (with printed borders not shown here added some decades later).  It was displayed at the V&A museum at their quilt exhibition several years ago. Much more detail about it here on their web site.  Makes me laugh that the story of it says that the papers used in the 'jockey cap' blocks were supposed (by tales in family history) to be the couple's love letters, but when looked at, they were random ledger sheets, adverts or anything else that came to hand! Far more prosaic, but it really doesn't detract from the quilt, does it?

Off to pull some fabrics for another quilt now. Maybe I should add a secret to it, or just start rumours about it.  The chances for fun are endless, aren't they?!